It is proposed to provide a saddle-ride type vehicle such as a motorcycle on the vehicle body of which an occupant such as a driver straddles to ride, with an airbag apparatus having a bag portion that deploys and inflates in front of the occupant to restrain the occupant at the time of a collision or the like.
For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-000962A, there is described an airbag apparatus that houses a bag in a retaining box provided in front of an occupant's seat and that deploys and inflates the bag upward from the retaining box to restrain the upper body of an occupant at the time of a vehicle collision or the like.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-000962 A, a front-opening cover having a hinge on the vehicle rear side thereof is provided on the top of the retaining box, and the bag portion is configured to inflate while push-opening this cover.
The cover serves to restrict the deployment direction so that the bag portion deploys and inflates in front of the occupant.
The cover is formed, for example, of a resin-based material. The hinge side and the opposite side of the cover are fixed to the retaining box. When the bag portion deploys and inflates, a tear line provided at the end on the side opposite to the hinge side of the cover breaks, and the cover is thereby opened.
The tear line is a fragile portion formed by reducing the thickness of a part of the cover in a groove-like fashion.
As a conventional art related to such a tear line of a cover, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-069782 A, it is described to provide a tear line that tears when an airbag deploys and inflates, in an erect portion of a cover, and to form a plurality of holes through which belts are passed and that are spaced apart in the vehicle width direction, on the tear line.
In the above-described cover having a tear line, it is desired to make the form of breaking of the tear line closer to bilaterally symmetric, and to make the deployment positions of the airbag cover and the bag portion more stable.
In view of the above-described problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide an airbag apparatus in which the form of breaking of a tear line can be made more stable, and the deployment positions of an airbag cover and a bag portion can be made more stable, and an airbag cover.
In order to solve the above problem, an airbag apparatus of the present invention includes a bag portion formed of a base cloth panel in a bag shape and deployed and inflated in front of a driver by being supplied with gas for deployment, an inflator that generates the gas for deployment, a retaining container in which the bag portion not in use is housed and at the top of which an opening is provided, and an airbag cover that substantially covers the opening of the retaining container when not in use and a front portion of which rises to uncover the opening when the bag portion is deployed and inflated. The airbag apparatus is provided in front of a seat of a saddle-ride type vehicle. The airbag cover has a tear line that is provided in the vicinity of the front end and extends substantially along the vehicle width direction and that is broken by input from the bag portion when the bag portion is deployed and inflated, and an opening is provided in the middle of the tear line in the vehicle width direction.
An airbag cover of the present invention is an airbag cover provided in an airbag apparatus including a bag portion formed of a base cloth panel in a bag shape and deployed and inflated in front of a driver by being supplied with gas for deployment, an inflator that generates the gas for deployment, and a retaining container in which the bag portion not in use is housed and at the top of which an opening is provided, the airbag apparatus being provided in front of a seat of a saddle-ride type vehicle. The airbag cover substantially covers the opening of the retaining container when not in use, and a front portion of the airbag cover rises to uncover the opening when the bag portion is deployed and inflated. The airbag cover has a tear line that is provided in the vicinity of the front end and extends substantially along the vehicle width direction and that is broken by input from the bag portion when the bag portion is deployed and inflated, and an opening is provided in the middle of the tear line in the vehicle width direction.
According to each invention described above, the tear line breaks bilaterally symmetrically from the opening, and therefore the forms of deployment of the airbag cover and the bag portion can be made more stable.
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an airbag apparatus in which the form of breaking of a tear line can be made more stable, and the forms of deployment of an airbag cover and a bag portion can be made more stable, and an airbag cover.